Archaeologists have found a warship that went down off Stockholm in the 17th century, in a find being described as globally unique, the Wrak shipwreck museum announced on Monday.

The wreck is that of the Äpplet (Apple), which was launched in 1629. It is the sister ship of the Vasa, which has its own museum in Stockholm.

The Vasa foundered on its maiden voyage soon after being launched a year earlier. It was found in Stockholm’s harbour in the middle of the last century.

The Äpplet, built by the same shipbuilder, was deliberately scuttled more than 30 years after launch as part of the city’s sea defences with the aim of blocking access to the city by sea.

The museum recounted the discovery of a huge shipwreck in 2021. While parts of the ship’s sides had fallen to the bottom of the sea, the hull was otherwise preserved up to a lower gun deck, according to the museum, that noted the fallen sides had gunports on two different levels, evidence of a warship with two gun decks. 

“Our pulses spiked when we saw how similar the wreck was to Vasa,” said Jim Hansson, maritime archaeologist at Vrak. “Both the construction and the powerful dimensions seemed very familiar.” 

They carried out a second, more thorough survey in early 2022, finding ship details were found that had so far only been seen in Vasa, and taking samples, the museum said.

It emerged that the oak for the ship’s timber was felled in 1627
in the Mälardalen area, east of Stockholm, in the same place as Vasa’s timber just a few years earlier. 

“The dimensions, construction details, wood samples and archival material all pointed in the same direction – amazingly, we had found Vasa’s sister ship Äpplet,” said Patrik Höglund, another maritime
archaeologist at Vrak.

The Äpplet is another key piece of the puzzle in the development of Swedish shipbuilding, the statement said. ©dpa